… As Cleric Backs Jonathan

The presiding Bishop of Kingdom Life gospel Church, Port Harcourt, Bishop Victor Uzosike, has thrown his weight behind President Goodluck Jonathan for the removal of fuel subsidy, saying, the gesture is done in good faith.

Uzosike who bared his mind in an interview with The Tide in Port Harcourt said he was conviced that the fuel subsidy removal was done in goof faith, having taken a critical look at the president’s Economic Team and listened to the debate on the fuel subsidy removal.

He, however, noted that both the federal and state governments should have cut down their huge expenditure and security votes before the removal of the subsidy, saying, “it is a shame for a nation like Nigeria which is over 50 years to be importing fuel”.

Uzosike noted that the removal of subsidy would compel Nigerians to adjust, recreate and adopt other strategies of survival instead of depending heavily on fuel for their survival, saying, “there is nowhere in the world that people drive on the streets like in Nigeria.”

Advancing further reasons why Nigerians should show understanding to the government’s policy, the man of God explained that Nigerians elected the president to lead them and must, therefore, learn to support him always if they want him to succeed, urging them to look at decisions taken by the president from the perspective of leadership instead of being parochial.

He said the decision to remove the subsidy was borne out of genuine intention by the government to actually move the nation forward in the face of the global economic meltdown, saying, there was the need to take painful decisions to bring the country’s ailing economy out of the woods.

According to him, the country needs a leader that is firm, decisive and futuristic rather than “a cosmetic leader who would beautify our ugly faces with cosmetics that would was away with time.”

If we co-operate with the leadership, he said, the country might achieve better results instead of “singing the praises of the president today and criticizing him when he had left office.

Uzosike further stressed that there was the need to be patient with President Jonathan because, according to him, he was still early in office and had barely three and half years to go.

“Before now, many saw him as a weak leader. I believe the only way forward is to take drastic decisions and build refineries,” he said.

Donatus Ebi